


Merlin Waits

by Snodroppen_prastkragge



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Dark Merlin (Merlin), Eventual Happy Ending, Gen, Good Morgana (Merlin), Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Merlin Waiting for Arthur Pendragon's Return (Merlin)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:14:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26328463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snodroppen_prastkragge/pseuds/Snodroppen_prastkragge
Summary: Merlin waits for Arthurs return. At first he cannot wait, he wishes that he would be there now, at once. But it takes Arthur quite some time. But Merlin waits like the good servant he is, until he's not.
Relationships: Alice/Gaius (Merlin), Gaius & Merlin (Merlin), Ygraine de Bois/Uther Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 16





	Merlin Waits

**Author's Note:**

> English is not my first language.

The moon was reflected in the lake,no animal or plant dared to make a noise when the great dragon died. He had died so shortly after Arthur that he had no time to think. After that the news of a white dragon being shot down reached him. And finally, finally he broke. 

He sealed himself away in a cave, closing off all ways to the outside, telling no-one where he was. He slept as empires rose and fell, voices would sometimes reach him. They changed so often, their gods, their ideas. Soon Camelot was no more than a myth and he was an old man within it.  
The world burned and started over as he dreamt, when he awoke all that was left was a ruin. Avalon was long gone,a lone man stood guarding it. He claimed his name to be Zhang Wei. He had said he was from a land far,far,far away. Where dragons still roamed. 

Merlin had gone there only to find he was too late, the magical world had died out in his absence. All that was left of it was myths and ideas. Yet he stayed, it took him many years to return home as he travelled a world so different from his own. He saw mountains high enough to touch the sky and animals far deadlier than anything he fought in his youth.

One day he woke up to a call, he returned home to find a world on fire. Hopeful he went to Avalon, it had returned. He waited by the shores for anything. But the only ripples upon the blank surface were the insects. He heard the cries from the new widows, the sonless mothers and the fatherless children and waited. But Arthur did not rise. Angered he went to war, to the no-man's land. 

The never ending rain of bullets and bombs, the screams of the wounded. Mud that went into everything, the cries of boys. An infant calling in a ruined village. Deserters being shot. Through it all, Arthur never rose. 

Finally it ended, there was peace. A short fragile peace haunted by Depression and anger. How quickly anger burned into hate. Millions dead and yet Arthur did not rise, he lay dead to the cries of his people, the cries of innocents. Merlin swore that if Arthur would ever rise he would not be there, he would never wait for him. 

He returned to the country once full of dangerous animals, now filled with criminals. He drank,and drank, and drank until all was gone and then he drank more. At every thought of Camelot he drank, he drank when the guilt of never saying goodbye reached him and then he went further. Pills, dust, smoke,death. He grew to love it all, why worry about death when you would always come back. Why mourn when all left. 

One day he opened his eyes and saw an old man once called Dragoon the Great. He had aged without thinking. He left his old names behind long ago. Pierre was an old man, Merlin or Emrys had been something else, naive, dumb. Pierre knew that all that had been promised him had been lies. Merlin believed it all. Merlin wanted it all. Pierre wanted nothing but revenge. If Arthur rose he would kill him, and then he’d be free from “Destiny” and all that it entailed. 

Strangely enough someone would refuse to let him be. He had introduced himself as Zhang Wei. He claimed they had met once before. Pierre had never left this country of hell. When he said that Zhang had snorted and quickly after forced him to meet someone he knew. They would need to go back to England for that. At first Pierre refused but the idea of new drinks enticed him. 

Gaius, Zhang's friend, was called. He worked as a doctor. He agreed to help Pierre. He and Alice. Gaius and Alice were acquaintances with Ygraine and Tristan De bois. Ygraine was apparently in love with a man named Uther. Alice thought they were a perfect pair, Gaius seemed more uncertain. He feared what would happen when Ygraine died for Uther adored her and “would maybe start a religion around her one day”. 

Pierre felt sick more often than not. Ideas and thoughts that were not his own started to appear. The love for someone was flickering inside him. His skin felt wrong and saggy. Pierre felt wrong, like a stretched mask. He wanted to pull it off and breathe. So he did and Zhao cheered for Emrys had returned. 

Ygraine died, without Arthur being born. Morgana came soon after, still daughter of Uther. She seemed happier here, no longer being a seer. Uther’s adoration of her must have helped as well. Merlin was still old, he thought as he watched Avalon. Five year old Morgana played at the shore, making a poor attempt at hiding from Uther. Maybe Arthur was never meant to rise, after all Kilgarah had never been that trustworthy. 

Morgana grew older and soon she had children of her own, Merlin had become young again. Now he was just a creepy man watching children. Gaius was a grandfather, it was funny to Merlin. He had watched him mourn Pierre, together with all of them. Merlin wanted to introduce himself to this far to familiar Gaius. But how could he, how could he explain. 

He watched them all die, this time he said goodbye and he saw in Gaius eyes that he knew, that he remembered. 

Then, Avalon moved. Truly, truly moved. And Arthur rose, his hand outstretched, waiting for Merlin to take it. So he did.

**Author's Note:**

> I did my best, this is just my take on how I believe Merlin's life was as he waited. Maybe I'll write some more of it. I'll probably re-write this is a few weeks but for now it is waht it is.


End file.
